Robert L. Frank establishes The Elaine M. Frank Endowed Fellowship Fund to support
COMD doctoral students

Robert L. Frank has gifted the Arnold School $100,000 to establish an endowment in memory of his
wife, Elaine M. Frank. Commemorating the life and contributions of Elaine Frank, Ph.D., who retired from
the Arnold School’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in 2013, The Elaine M. Frank Fellowship Fund will support COMD doctoral students with annual fellowship awards. Robert Frank has
donated an additional gift of $2,000, which will be distributed to an outstanding
COMD doctoral student in the fall and allows his generosity to have an immediate impact.

First as a student and then as a faculty member, Elaine Frank had a strong connection
to USC for nearly four decades. The three-time USC-COMD alumna earned dual master’s
degrees in audiology and speech pathology in 1976 and a doctorate in communication
sciences and disorders in 1988. After a decade in the field of speech pathology, she
joined the COMD department as an assistant professor in 1991.

Her research expertise focused on neurological disorders, such as stroke, dementia
and brain injury in children and adults. Elaine Frank served as COMD chair from 1999-2012,
and her leadership was instrumental to the department’s growth and success. She received
Professor Emerita status when she retired in 2013 and maintained her steadfast support
of the COMD department.

“I wanted to set up a lasting memory for what Elaine has meant to many people—her
many contributions to her patients, colleagues, and family and friends,” says Robert
Frank. “She was the type of person who walks into a room and has that magnetic personality.
People wanted to talk with her because she had not only the knowledge, but she was
very encouraging and motivating to help people reach their goals. She could see their
potential and then help them reach that potential.”

With this gift, Robert Frank hopes to extend Elaine Frank’s unique impact—on both
students and the clients they serve—indefinitely. “With this endowed scholarship for
doctoral students, we are striving for what Elaine always wanted for her students—helping
them do the very best they can do,” says Robert Frank. “Whether as a clinician, researcher,
or administrator in the field, I know she would want to support the pathway the doctoral
student would want to pursue.”

Among the many overlaps in their life together, Robert and Elaine Frank shared a passion
for the health sciences in both their professional and personal lives. With five USC
degrees between them, establishing The Elaine M. Frank Fellowship Fund at their alma
mater was a natural fit. As the nexus of Elaine Frank’s many years of leadership,
service, and friendship, the COMD department was another easy decision.

“This gift will have an immediate and long-lasting effect on the doctoral program
that Elaine Frank so dearly loved,” says COMD Chair Kenn Apel. “Funding for doctoral students does not come easily, and so this Fellowship, in
her name, will support our students to become the type of researchers that Elaine
so highly encouraged: scholars who always have individuals with speech and language
impairments first and foremost in their minds. The department is so appreciative of
Robert Frank for establishing this fund.”